No Britton, no problem! Yanks bullpen can survive hits

ATLANTA — Hours after getting the unsettling news that Zack Britton is likely going to miss the rest of the season, the Yankees bullpen was showing it can hold up through another hit.

Jonathan Loaisiga has been steadily gaining the confidence of manager Aaron Boone and his coaches all season. He got the Yankees through two innings in their 5-1 win over the Braves on Monday. Wandy Peralta has also earned that trust and is moving into the high-leverage innings role. He gave the Yankees a perfect eighth on Monday.

Aroldis Chapman has had an up-and-down season, but Monday was definitely an up day. The closer, who could not get himself out of the ninth in his last outing, had a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation.

“It was good to see. He’s under control, landed a couple really good splitters... pounding the strike zone, so that was good to see,” Boone said. “I thought his stuff ticked up a little as the outing went on, he was pitch efficient and

throwing strikes and on the attack. That was nice to see and a definitely good bounce back from his first one off the last time.”

It’s been a roller coaster of a season for Chapman.

The last time he made an appearance, he gave up a one-out home run to Hunter Renfroe and a two-out single to J.D. Martinez before Boone had to come out and replace him. Lucas Luetge had to finish off the 5-2 win over the Red Sox on Aug. 18.

After pitching to a 0.39 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 11 walks in his first 23

appearances (23,1 IP) this season, Chapman gave up 14 earned runs in his next 11 appearances, which also dates back to the beginning of MLB’S crackdown on the sticky substances pitchers use for better grips and spin rates. He walked 12 batters and struck out nine and gotten through just 6.2 innings in those 11 appearances.

Since July 6, however, the 33-year-old lefty has allowed just two earned runs over 12.2 innings. He’s struck out 21 and walked nine.

Chapman went on the injured list with elbow inflammation on Aug 7 and his ugly return revealed an initial drop in velocity in his fastball.